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John Percy Vyvian Dacre Balsdon and Andrew Lintott

Acta means ‘the things that have been done’ and has two specialized, overlapping senses in Roman history; one is a gazette, the other is official acts, especially of an emperor.The Acta diurna were a ...
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Acta means ‘the things that have been done’ and has two specialized, overlapping senses in Roman history; one is a gazette, the other is official acts, especially of an emperor.The Acta diurna were a gazette, whose publication dates from before 59 bce (a 2nd-cent. bce example of these is quoted by Renaissance antiquarians but its authenticity has been doubted); from the late republic onwards it recorded not only official events and ceremonies, but lawsuits and public speeches, and was read both at Rome and in the provinces (Asc. 30–1 C; Tac. Ann. 16. 22). The Acta senatus (or Commentarii senatus) constituted the official record of proceedings in the senate, first published in 59 bce (Suet. Iul. 20). Under the Principate a senator was selected by the emperor to be responsible for the record (Tac. Ann. 5. 4). The proceedings were available to senators but *Augustus forbade their wider publication (Suet. Aug.Less

Thomas Rüfner

In Roman law, the word actio refers to a civil lawsuit. At first sight, it seems obvious that actio derives from the verb ago, which has the basic meaning “to drive,” “to urge,” or simply “to act.” ...
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In Roman law, the word actio refers to a civil lawsuit. At first sight, it seems obvious that actio derives from the verb ago, which has the basic meaning “to drive,” “to urge,” or simply “to act.” The Roman jurists themselves clearly regarded ago as the verb corresponding to the noun actio and meaning “to conduct a lawsuit” (cf. Festus, Gloss. Lat. 21, l. 15, s.v. agere). Hence, actio may be explained as referring to the claimant urging the judge (and/or the adversary) to do something,1 or simply to the claimant’s actions in court.2 Some scholars have proposed different etymologies. It seems possible that actio is not a derivative of ago (“to drive, to urge”), but of a root agjō meaning “to speak” (cf. the verb aio), and that the word was only later associated with ago.3 Alternatively, it has been argued that ago and aio have a common root that, in the context of archaic law, refers to a performative utterance which affects the Roman citizens collectively.Less

Arnold Hugh Martin Jones and Michael Crawford

Adaeratio, the procedure whereby dues to the Roman state in kind were commuted to cash payments. The related word adaerare first appears in ce 383 (Cod. Theod. 7. 18. 8) and the practice is ...
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Adaeratio, the procedure whereby dues to the Roman state in kind were commuted to cash payments. The related word adaerare first appears in ce 383 (Cod. Theod. 7. 18. 8) and the practice is characteristic of the later Roman empire. But it is attested for certain dues supplementary to the standard form of *taxation in Cicero's Verrines and Tacitus' Agricola, along with its attendant abuses. In the later Roman empire the procedure was also applied to distributions by the Roman state in kind. The transaction was sometimes official, sometimes unofficial, and might be made on the initiative of the government, the tax-collector (see publicani), or the taxpayer in the case of levies, or of either party in the case of distributions. The rate might be settled by bargaining, or fixed by the government at the market price or at some arbitrary sum. The range of commodities involved was large. Just as dues and distributions in kind had assumed greater importance because of the collapse of the coinage system in the 3rd cent. ce, so a consciousness of the existence of a stable gold coinage after Constantine led to a slow move back to transactions in money, normally gold, over the late 4th and 5th cents.Less

John Percy Vyvian Dacre Balsdon and Barbara Levick

A man acquired the right of speaking in the Roman senate (ius sententiae dicendae; see senate) by holding a magistracy, the quaestorship; he became a full member when his name was placed on the ...
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A man acquired the right of speaking in the Roman senate (ius sententiae dicendae; see senate) by holding a magistracy, the quaestorship; he became a full member when his name was placed on the senatorial roll (*album) (‘a censoribus…allectum’, Val. Max. 2. 2. 1). *Caesar, *dictator or praefectus morum (overseer of public morals), and the *triumvirs adlected men directly into the senate, presumably as quaestorii. (Adlection into the patriciate began with Caesar (Suet. Iul. 41. 2).) This unpopular proceeding was avoided by emperors until *Claudius, *censor in ce 47–8, admitted men inter quaestorios and tribunicios (ILS968); *Vespasian anticipated his censorship (Tac. Hist. 2. 82), but in 73–4 did the same (ILS 1024 = MW 321, inter praetorios). After *Domitian (life censor) men were routinely adlected. Adlection inter consulares first appears in ce 182, was practised by *Macrinus, and disliked (Cass.Less

Adolf Berger, Barry Nicholas, and Susan M. Treggiari

Adoptio is a legal act by which a Roman citizen enters another family and comes under the *patria potestas of its chief. Since only a paterfamilias (see patria potestas) could adopt, women could not ...
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Adoptio is a legal act by which a Roman citizen enters another family and comes under the *patria potestas of its chief. Since only a paterfamilias (see patria potestas) could adopt, women could not (except in later law by imperial grant). When the adopted person, male or female, was previously in the paternal power of another, the act was adoptio; when a male who was not in paternal power but himself the head of a family, it was adrogatio. Women could not be adrogated. Both acts involved a deminutio capitis minima, a reduction of legal status.Adrogatio fused two families, for with the adoptee (adrogatus) all under his power (potestas, manus) and his property pass into the family of the adopter (adrogator). In early times adrogatio was publicly validated by a vote of the curiate assembly, preceded (since it extinguished a family and its cult) by an investigation by the pontiffs; by the time of Cicero, 30 lictors represented the curiae (see curia (1)).Less

Adolf Berger, Barry Nicholas, and Susan M. Treggiari

Roman tradition ascribed to fathers and husbands great severity in punishing illicit sexual behaviour by daughters or wives. Such misconduct was stuprum in married or unmarried women, an offence ...
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Roman tradition ascribed to fathers and husbands great severity in punishing illicit sexual behaviour by daughters or wives. Such misconduct was stuprum in married or unmarried women, an offence against chastity (pudicitia); adulterium described sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man other than her husband. Until the legislation of Augustus, regulation was chiefly in the hands of the family: adultery probably always justified divorce; a family council might advise the paterfamilias (husband or father in whose power the woman was (see patria potestas)) on this and other sanctions, possibly including execution. The immediate killing of adulterers/adulteresses taken in the act was defensible (morally and in court) but probably not legally prescribed. Other physical violence against the adulterer is a literary commonplace. Adultery in the late republic, like the seduction or rape of an unmarried woman, entitled the father or husband to sue the man for damages (for *iniuria, insult) and not only to divorce the wife but to retain part of her dowry.Less

Barry Nicholas

This article considers advocacy as a profession. For advocacy in its wider sense and in particular for its techniques, see rhetoric.A party to a Roman trial might entrust the presentation of his case ...
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This article considers advocacy as a profession. For advocacy in its wider sense and in particular for its techniques, see rhetoric.A party to a Roman trial might entrust the presentation of his case to an advocate (advocatus, patronus, causidicus). These men, who appear as a class in the late republic under the influence of Greek rhetoric, and of whom *Cicero and the younger *Pliny (2) are prominent representatives, were orators rather than *lawyers. They would necessarily have, or acquire, some knowledge of law (Cicero evidently knew a lot), but their reputations were founded on their skill in forensic rhetoric. They and the jurists regarded each other as distinct classes, with different (and in the eyes of the other class inferior) functions, though occasionally an advocate might become a jurist. Advocates were forbidden to accept any reward for their services, but this rule was evidently often ignored and by the end of the 2nd cent. ce imperial recognition was given (Dig.Less

A. N. Sherwin-White and Andrew Lintott

The aediles originated as two subordinates of the tribunes of the plebs whose sacrosanctity they shared. Their central function was to supervise the common temple (aedes) and cults of the plebs, ...
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The aediles originated as two subordinates of the tribunes of the plebs whose sacrosanctity they shared. Their central function was to supervise the common temple (aedes) and cults of the plebs, those of *Ceres and *Diana on the *Aventine, but they also acted as the executives of the tribunes. With the addition in 367 bce of two aediles curules, elected from the patricians, the aedileship became a magistracy of the whole people, but the subsequent functions of both sets of aediles can be chiefly explained as patronage of the urban plebs. After the admission of plebeians the curule magistracy was held alternately by either order, but in the empire was omitted by patricians. Aediles were elected annually, the plebeii in the *conciliumplebis, the curules in the *comitiatributa. Curules ranked below praetors, plebeii at first below tribunes but eventually with the curules.Less

Tony Honoré

Aelius Marcianus, a lawyer of the early 3rd cent. ce, probably from the eastern provinces. Mainly a teacher, he does not seem to have given responsa (consultative opinions). His extensive ...
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Aelius Marcianus, a lawyer of the early 3rd cent. ce, probably from the eastern provinces. Mainly a teacher, he does not seem to have given responsa (consultative opinions). His extensive knowledge of the rescripts (replies to petitions) of Severus and Caracalla might be explained by a connection with *Ulpianus, whose style is similar, and of whom he may have been a pupil. He is not known to have held public office. Author of several monographs and commentaries published after Caracalla's death in 217, he is best known for his large-scale teaching manual, sixteen books (libri) of Institutiones. Though other lawyers do not seem to have cited him, Justinian's compilers admired his clarity and measured judgement and selected over 280 passages from his work for the Digesta (see justinian's codification).

Tony Honoré

Aelius Paetus, Sextus, a Roman lawyer nicknamed ‘Catus’ (clever) for his shrewd pragmatism, was consul in 198 bce. He was the author of Tripertita, so called because it contained three elements: the ...
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Aelius Paetus, Sextus, a Roman lawyer nicknamed ‘Catus’ (clever) for his shrewd pragmatism, was consul in 198 bce. He was the author of Tripertita, so called because it contained three elements: the law of the Twelve Tables, an account of their interpretation, and the formulas for use in litigation and possibly private transactions (legis actiones, ‘actions in law’).Less